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Salonen to become San Francisco Symphony music director

By Associated Press | December 5, 2018

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Esa-Pekka Salonen (Photo: Benjamin Suomela)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Esa-Pekka Salonen will become music director of the San Francisco Symphony starting with the 2020-21 season.

He will succeed Michael Tilson Thomas, who ends his 25-year tenure following the 2019-20 season.

Salonen, a 60-year-old Finn who also composes, was given the immediate title of music director designate, the orchestra said Wednesday. He has a five-year contract as music director, will lead six subscription weeks and an Asia tour in his first season, then will conduct 12-to-14 weeks annually.

Salonen was principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984-95 and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1992-2009. He has been principal conductor and artistic adviser for London’s Philharmonia since 2008-09, a role that orchestra said Monday will end following the 2020-21 season.

dennis's morning quiz

Today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, and our question concerns one of Bach’s cantatas. On his Almanac this morning, Carl Grapentine played the opening of Bach’s 214th Cantata, which you may immediately recognize as the joyful opening of a much more famous choral piece by Bach. The Cantor of Leipzig added different words and recycled this as the beginning of what major work?